Apple settles with government over kids in-app purchases, whines a little

In-app purchase rules also required to change

Apple has reached a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission regarding children's relatively easy access to in-app purchases through the iTunes store.

The company has to pay a minimum of $32.5 million (about £19.8m, AU$36.4m) to outraged parents who discovered that their kids racked up charges without their permission.

This often occurred within colorful, seemingly innocent microtransaction-laden games marketed as "free to download." Unbeknownst to many parents, many of these games center around virtual currency that costs real-life money.

Because Apple only required a password for in-app purchase every 15 minutes, it allowed kids to download an unlimited number of in-app purchases in this brief window.